Bonzuko

You know? I actually want this. (Thanks, Boing Boing!)   ~Jenn

But we knew that. This just in from the folks at Museum Replicas re: the Force FX lightsabers. Before, the documents said that you should never use them for fighting, ever. Now their website says that it’s in fact okay to use them with light contact, choreographed moves, on each other (not other stuff, not hard). Hm. We wonder if they saw any of our videos using them and were forced to amend their instructions. Naahhh…:)   ~Jenn

J cubed w/lightsabers

Hm. What do you think of this?  –> http://io9.com/5414133/omfg-theyve-made-real-lightsabers-kinda     ~Jenn

Team Bonzuko finished playing Mini Ninjas a while ago, but haven’t gotten around to posting our sage opinions on it till now.

In general, Mini Ninjas is a lovely game, with a simple yet pleasing plot, and user-friendly gameplay. I had read a while back that it’s designed mainly as a children’s game, and it’s apparent. But the things that make it kid-friendly are precisely the things that make it a good game for anyone to play. Here are a few reasons why:

1. the cartoon-like art. The characters and sweeping landscapes of different climates are gorgeous–definitely the sort of environment that allows for pausing and enjoying the scenery.
2. the exciting parts. A few white-water ninja-hat-rafting events, a treacherous ninja-hat-sledding bit, the searches for the secret shrines, having to figure out how to defeat the big bosses…all of these are just difficult enough that you get satisfaction from victory, not so hard that it’s frustrating, nor so easy that it’s not an enjoyable brain tease.
3. the cute humor. One of the bosses is a giant samurai that sends deadly farts your way–you have to dodge his gas bombs as you figure out how to defeat him. The many cute animals throughout are delightful, and the sparse dialogue often gives a smile.
4. the combat. This is the big one for us. Sure, you have a sword as main character Hiro (and other weapons as the others, like a hammer, a flute, and a bow-and-arrow), and you do have to hack and slash your way through hordes of tiny samurai, but! you’re not killing them. Nope, you’re freeing woodland creatures from an evil spell. Every time you defeat a samurai, they disappear with a popping sound and become the animal they used to be. This nonviolent approach is revolutionary–you don’t miss out on any of the sweet ninja fight action, but you’re not slaughtering either.

The thing about Mini Ninjas is that it’s got all kinds of real ninja lore as well as action: from tengu mentors to basket-headed priests to walking on strings of red lanterns for sneaking up on enemies, to big bosses that are embodiments of elements. We aren’t sure if anyone who doesn’t know a lot about ninja legends and mythology would dig it as much as we do, so if any of you lovely lurkers fall into that category and play it, let us know what you think.

Team Bonzuko played this game on the Xbox 360, but it’s available on PC and Wii as well.

The Bottom Line: Mini Ninjas (on PC, Xbox 360, PS3, Wii):  **** out of *****

We can’t officially vote yet, but do go and put view counts onto our friends’ Doritos commercial contest entries. These are the folks we were going to do the fight scenarios with but the plans fell through. Sign in and give your enthusiastic comments.

The numbers are: 2859, 2821, and 2841.

http://www.crashthesuperbowl.com/#/video/2859

Well unfortunately logistics stood in the way of us being able to do our fight-centered Doritos Commercial contest ideas with the folks from SillyStringGirl.com this year (the same awesome creative people that made “Staying Alive”), HOWEVER!

There are three 2009 entries they did without us that are hilariously awesome, and I can’t imagine they won’t win with one of these. Vote for em once the site is up–I’ll let you know, lovely lurkers. Here are links to my two favorites out of the three.  ~Jenn

http://www.sillystringgirl.com/betterThanBrains.html

http://www.sillystringgirl.com/whyPretend.html

More about a beautiful-looking upcoming game thanks to stellar blog Kotaku. Enjoy this video by the Assassin’s Creed II developers, re: how they’ve done their best to make the game’s combat more realistic as well as varietal. Video game violence is kind of like staged violence? Sorta? Discuss.   ~Jenn

Team Bonzuko’s tenth anniversary was Thursday. To commemorate this auspicious occasion, we went to the AHBA members-only day of the Great American Beer Festival, Saturday afternoon. There were many beer-related adventures to be had, but one of them was the exclusive opening of Sam Adams’ Utopias beer. They didn’t announce it, no, they said it would just be tapped when it was and that would be it. It’s nigh impossible to get this very powerful, fragrant nectar otherwise than at the GABF and only on Saturday, so it is annually a highly sought-after treat.

Team Bonzuko in line for Utopias

We ninjas of Bonzuko got back to the Sam Adams booth right before the gossip said the Utopias was “very close” to getting there. We were third in line. Once the scuttlebutt began, the crowd behind us got so vast, it was astonishing. Behold, lovely

Look at the size of the crowd directly behind us!

 lurkers, the power of the word. Of mouth, that is. And the irresistible need to queue.

Yes, lovely lurkers, we made it out unscathed. We had so much fun. More stories coming up on The Wrapped Scallion. Was Utopias worth it? Hm. Well, it would have been worth a whole ounce sample. A half ounce was just too little a reward for such an event. Add the secretive hype to the actual waiting in line (if you can), and one deserves a whole ounce.

In the Bonzuko hombu, this game is called the “ninja game.” Why? Because it’s excellent training for paying detailed attention to one’s surroundings, and anything that may be off or awry in a crowd. I also think this game would be a good training tool for security guards or bodyguards.

The game consists of many Miis (the little characters you make in your Wii game) set up in different crowd situations (a grandstand, a street, a dark room, an escalator) and the object is to point out various configurations as asked by the game. For example, in one level you may be asked to find two identical Miis in a large swimming pool, and in the very next you’ll be asked to find the fastest Mii in a crowd of runners, or the two Miis that are moving in the opposite direction from all the others in a stadium-like crowd. All this happens as a timer counts down–how many levels can you clear in the time frame allotted?

What’s surprising about this game is how difficult it can get. What’s engaging about this game is noting why certain Miis fly under your radar and why others stand out. It reminds me of an attention exercise in one of Stephen Hayes’ Ninja book series–I belive it’s in #1, wherein he exhorts ninja-in-training to look at a crowd in detail, noting who’s invisible, who stands out, etc. Find Mii makes you do this in a fun, fast-paced environment. It’s also fun to play it with a friend: “Oh, man! How did you see that one so fast?” etc.

Highly recommended game (found on Wii Play) for our lovely lurkers with the Wii system.  ~Jenn